Summary

Pages 75-92
Throughout these pages we see the beginning of a new life for Thornhill and his family. They arrive in Sydney Cove and Thornhill is given to Sal as a slave. Sal is now his master and he is to work for her. The family is allocated a hut on the hill that they will call home for now and they cant help but notice that it is very different to what they are use to. The hut is made out of mud and has dirt for the floor. Willie finds it hard to get used to both the new hut as well as his father. Thornhill and Sal finally share some interment time together after their long voyage. Thornhill gets a job working for Mr King. Thornhill is now working with a range of different types of alcohol, which the colony now lives for. "The place ran on rum like a horse ran on oats" The Thornhill's moved into a new hut. This hut was bigger but still made out of mud. Sal divided the hut into two rooms, one being a room for the rum. Sal was finding it hard to understand the way Australia worked. The heavy rains and the abundance of different creatures that were crawling around in the hut were hard to live with. They both said they would save up enough money to move back to London. Through the Thornhill's business with selling rum from their hut they came across some different people. One of those different people being Scabby Bill. Scabby Bill is a naked aboriginal that hangs around their hut a lot looking for food and maybe a drop of rum.

pages 92-108
Thornhill would see black men spearing out at sea but when he came and saw them by boat by the time he got there, they were gone. When speaking to Sal about the spearing she seemed quite distressed as it was very close to the bay which was where she lived. Thornhill meats Thomas Blackwood who also owns a boat that crosses the river. Thornhill discovers how much Sal would do for her children by the way she would care for them and wait till they fell asleep. Thornhill took up the opportunity to travel to Hawkesbury with Blackwood. On their journey, the sea was pushing their limits for them to achieve their goal. Blackwood travelled through broken bay to find the secret river. A black man came towards them in their own boat and yelled out to Thornhill and Blackwood and raised his hands which were holding dead hands that had been cut off at the wrist. Still on their way to their destination they passed a dead black man who had been hung. Blackwood also showed Thornhill the 100 aces of land he owns which he named after him. The river begins to become more calm and gentle as they continue their journey.

Pages 109-123
Thornhill and Sal are sitting by the fire and Thornhill mentions to Sal they should buy a property of land. Sal says to him that they don't need it and they're fine how they are at the moment and the land becomes something that Thornhill really wants. Blackwood told Thornhill how to get a petition written out by a man named Nightingale who was often drunk. Thornhill signed a document by Nightingale to be pardoned. December four years after he had arrived, he was pronounced as 'absolutely pardoned' by the Governor. Sal says to Thornhill that she thinks he should borrow some money off King and should buy Blackwoods 'the Queen'. Thornhill is pleasantly surprised at her proposal but then is a little off put because Sal mentions the reason she wants him to buy the Queen is so they can get enough money then go home. He gets the loan from Mr King, and changes the boats name from 'Queen' to 'Hope'. Sal has another baby boy who is called Johnny. Thornhill and his oldest son Willie become somewhat closer by working on the boat together. Thornhill becomes very dedicated in the boat, he would row through night time, bad weather and against the tide. Sal falls pregnant again. Thornhill asks Sal if they can stay five extra years because he wants to buy the land. He is very excited and hopeful about it so she says yes as long as its only five years.



Conflict with the environment

Pages 75-92
The conflict the Thornhill's have with the environment is that Sal can't believe the amount of rain they get and how loud the thunder is. Also there is a lot of different creatures that they haven't seen before.

pages 92-108
- as they were on their journey to Hawkesbury, they had difficulties with the whether and the rough seas inorder to travel to their destination.
Quote: 'it seemed leisurely, even playful, until it smashed down hard enough to kill’ - inreference to the river; page 99

- Blackwood was showing Thornhill his land that he owned and how he got his own piece of land '

Quote: ‘get your backside on a bit of ground, sit tight.thats all teh asking you got to do’ pg 105 in reference to how he got this 100 aces of land

Pages 109-123
-Thornhill really wants to buy a piece of land to give his family a better environment, but Sal does not want to.
Quote: "Set our selves up there like Blackwood done, never look back." Thornhill-109

Racial Conflict

Conflict with aboriginals
Pages 75-92
Some racial conflict is when Sal laughs at Scabby Bill for waiting at the door to the hut naked as well as using him to dance when drunk to improve business.


pages 92-108
‘ a white man might have to be coaxed along to empty his pockets before the world seemed a friendly place to him, but Scabby Bill needed hardly a mouthful’ – getting drunk pg 92 conflict of whites vs aboriginals
‘there were no signs that the blacks felt the place belonged to them. Theyhad no fences that said this is mine’- pg93 - no separation between white people it was just a known thing
Crossing the river was proved to be challenging due to the black owning land they had to cross and at this point it was where it was the most dangerous area as they could be killed instantly.